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These shows and movies will help celebrate the planet we all call home this Earth Day.

Happy Earth Day! In 2025, this holiday seems more important than ever to observe, with climate change and other threats to our shared environment confronting every person on the planet. Earth Day was first observed on April 22, 1970, and for each of the 55 years since, people from around the world have done their best to ensure that future generations understand the importance of protecting our natural resources.

While it might not be the most proactive way to help the planet, if you are looking for a way to celebrate Earth Day at home, we have a list of movies, TV series, and documentaries that you can stream tonight. There is a wide range of titles available to stream that speak to the importance of global conservation, and you can find something great on any of your top subscriptions.

The music industry boasts a number of brilliant artists whose music has garnered the attention of fans across the world, transcending boundaries and influencing generations with their unique talent. Among these many great artists, often while talking of the West, artists like Kayne West, Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Beyoncé are named as the leaders and Goats.

Jay-Z and Beyoncé | Credit: Instagram / @beyonce

However, the British-Sri Lankan artist M.I.A. has a beef to pick with them and recently claimed she is the reason why they became such successful artists.

M.I.A. makes bold claims of making artists like Jay-Z billionaires The rapper M.I.A. is going viral for her bold claims | Credit: Instagram / @miamatangi

M.I.A. is one of the leading musical artists when it comes to the world of hip-hop and has given several chart-topping and award-winning hits throughout her career. Known for her bold music and outspoken personality,...

The identity of the Ice Truck Killer is one of the biggest mysteries of Dexter season 1. Throughout the compelling first season of the beloved Showtime thriller series, Dexter Morgan must figure out who is behind a series of murders that completely fascinates him and his "Dark Passenger." Dexter, a vigilante of sorts who works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department by day and is a morally aware serial killer by night, is faced with one of the best villains of the entire Dexter series in the first season.

The Ice Truck Killer gives Dexter plenty of signs that ultimately lure him into an unbelievable truth. He was first introduced in Dexter's pilot episode with the discovery of one of his victims completely drained of blood and divided into perfectly cut parts. From there, the Ice Truck Killer became a terrific target for Dexter in the...

Arch Enemy have announced their 12th studio album, Blood Dynasty, set for release March 28th, 2025, via Century Media Records.

The album news comes after the veteran metal band released the surprise single “Dream Stealer” at the end of July. That tune will be one of 11 tracks on Blood Dynasty.

Founding Arch Enemy guitarist Michael Amott stated, “This new album pushes the boundaries of what we’ve done before — it’s everything you’ve come to expect from this band, and then some! We can’t wait for you to hear it and feel the energy we’ve poured into every track. Welcome to the Blood Dynasty!”

Along with Amott, the band is rounded out by singer Alissa White-Gluz, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo, drummer Daniel Erlandsson, and new guitarist Joey Concepcion (who took over the spot vacated by Jeff Loomis in 2023).

Blood Dynasty serves as the follow-up to 2022’s Deceivers, which yielded...

Alex Garland’s speculative and apolitical action film might be a box office hit but it’s a frustratingly weightless experience

The music video for Mia’s Born Free imagines a ginger genocide, with humvees of jackbooted, gas-masked stormtroopers raiding a high-rise housing complex to round up redheads. Even before the condemned are bussed out to the desert and used for target practice, the camerawork luxuriates in extreme content – needless collateral brutalization, a slow-mo closeup of a man smoking from a glass stem, a harsh coitus interruptus for a nude couple. All the while, a driving synth loop and kinetic cinematography keep things moving at a brisk, exciting clip befitting the high-energy banger at hand; one of the goons mugs through the fourth wall and lip-syncs a “whoo!” in time with the track.

The video has far more use for the edgy textures of state-sponsored violence than its messy realities,...

It’s a case of one score to rule them all, as Howard Shore’s stirring epic soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings trilogy was voted the U.K.’s favorite movie music.

Shore’s score for the Rings film, which has won three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes and four Grammys, came out ahead of some of the greatest and most recognizable soundtracks of all time, including John Williams’ music for Schindler’s List and Star Wars, which came second and third respectively.

The list of the top 100 film scores was compiled by popular U.K. radio station Classic FM, as part of their annual Movie Music Hall of Fame. More than 10,000 people voted for this year’s edition and the winner was revealed on Sunday by Jonathan Ross, the former presenter of the BBC’s Film program.

“Many thanks to all the Classic FM listeners,” Shore told...

The people behind the scenes of the documentaries and nonfiction series at this year’s Emmy Awards sat down with Gold Derby and explain several topics including the first documentary that got their attention and, in the event that they win, what would be their ideal music to play as they make their way to the stage. This was all part of Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts panel on TV Documentaries that included Leah Wolchok (“Judy Blume Forever”), Ryan White, Lucinda Axelsson (“Secrets of the Elephants”), Nikole Hannah-Jones (“The 1619 Project”) and Padma Lakshmi (“Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi”).

You can watch the TV documentary group panel above with the people who made these five programs. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to each exclusive interview.

See over 200 video interviews with 2023 Emmy nominees

Wolchok’s love of documentaries came from seeing two films in...

Natsuki Takaya is one of the most celebrated manga creators due to the continuing popularity of her Fruits Basket series. The tragic yet uplifting story has now spanned generations of fans and encapsulates a lot of what audiences associate with the shojo genre. With a few anime adaptations of her work, as well as multiple manga series, Takaya has made a name for herself globally.

However, there is much more about Takaya that fans have yet to discover. She may be most well-known for Fruits Basket, but there is much more to Takaya and her work than meets the eye.

Related: 10 Most Romantic Anime Quotes Of All Time, Ranked

The Beginning

Takaya grew up in Tokyo with a plethora of manga at her disposal. Like many artists today, Takaya began drawing at a very young age. When Takaya was only in first grade, her older sister started drawing, which compelled...

Click here to read the full article.

Telluride saw the world premiere of a new wildlife documentary called Wildcat that has unmistakable appeal to animal lovers as well as admirers of astonishing true-life stories. Amazon will screen the movie this fall. The South American ocelot that is at the center of this tale of animal rescue and liberation will attract audiences, but the human characters in this saga hold at least as much appeal.

Harry Turner had enlisted in the British army in Afghanistan when he was only 18, and the horrors that he observed there traumatized him and led to suicidal behavior. When he traveled to the Peruvian Amazon, he found a new purpose. While he was there, he met a woman named Samantha Zwicker who was involved in a project to rescue wild animals threatened by poachers. The two of them eventually established a personal as well as professional...

Justice will be served as anarchy erupts following a murder at the hands of a rogue police officer.

Romain Gavras’ “Athena” tells an all-too-timely tale of cop corruption, militant protests, and the intersection between nationalism and personal duty. The film premieres at the 2022 Venice Film Festival on September 2, followed by a September 23 Netflix release.

Per the official synopsis, after the death of his youngest brother following an alleged police altercation, Abdel (Dali Benssalah) is called back from the frontline to find his family torn apart. Caught between his younger brother Karim’s (Sami Slimane) desire for revenge and the criminal dealings of his older brother Moktar (Ouassini Embarek), he struggles to calm the rising tensions. As the situation escalates, their community Athena is transformed into a fortress under siege, becoming a scene of tragedy for both the family and beyond.

Gavras directed, produced, and co-wrote the feature along with Ladj Ly...

Ralph Carmichael, composer and Emmy Award-winning arranger-conductor for Nat King Cole, Jack Jones, Ella Fitzgerald and Roger Williams, died Oct. 18 in Camarillo, Calif. He was 94.

Carmichael got his big break when Capitol Records producer Lee Gillette was introduced to his arrangement in the 1950s. This led to the prolific collaboration between Carmichael and Cole, starting with Cole arranging the 1960 Christmas album “The Magic of Christmas” which was re-packaged in 1962 as “The Christmas Song.” Carmichael and Cole produced nine full studio projects together including Nat’s final sessions in 1964 for the album “L.O.V.E,” more collaborations with Nat than any other arranger. He was also a primary arranger/conductor for pianist Roger Williams, creating 20 albums together including the 1965 hit “Born Free.”

Carmichael also wrote charts for TV shows such as “My Mother the Car” and “I Love Lucy” as well as movie scores, including “The Blob,” “4D Man” and “The Cross and the Switchblade.

Ralph Carmichael, a prolific composer and arranger of film and TV scores whose writing or arranging credits include I Love Lucy, Bonanza, My Mother the Car, the sci-fi classic The Blob and some of the most beloved and enduring Christmas recordings ever made, died Monday in Camarillo, Calif. He was 94.

His death was announced by family spokesperson Jim Pedersen. A cause was not specified.

A pioneering figure in contemporary Christian music, Carmichael began a long career in television and film in the early 1950s when he headed the music department of his alma mater, the Southern California Bible College, and his school band was featured on the local Los Angeles TV program Campus Christian Hour. The show won an Emmy Award in 1951.

Around the same time, he began writing incidental music charts for I Love Lucy, a role he’d also fill on December Bride, Bonanza and The Frankie Lane Show,...

Jack Couffer, the cinematographer, director, producer and wildlife aficionado who received an Oscar nomination for shooting the 1973 adventure tale Jonathan Livingston Seagull, has died. He was 96.

Couffer died July 30 at a hospice care facility in Costa Mesa, California, his son, Michael Couffer, announced.

Couffer also directed such features as Ring of Bright Water (1969), a movie about a dog that he co-wrote; The Legend of Lobo (1962), revolving around a wolf; and Living Free (1972), the sequel to the 1966 lion tale Born Free.

He served as the second-unit director on the Oscar best picture winner Out of Africa (1985), the Tanya Roberts-starring Sheena (1984) ...

Jack Couffer, the cinematographer, director, producer and wildlife aficionado who received an Oscar nomination for shooting the 1973 adventure tale Jonathan Livingston Seagull, has died. He was 96.

Couffer died July 30 at a hospice care facility in Costa Mesa, California, his son, Michael Couffer, announced.

Couffer also directed such features as Ring of Bright Water (1969), a movie about a dog that he co-wrote; The Legend of Lobo (1962), revolving around a wolf; and Living Free (1972), the sequel to the 1966 lion tale Born Free.

He served as the second-unit director on the Oscar best picture winner Out of Africa (1985), the Tanya Roberts-starring Sheena (1984) ...

Nobody director Ilya Naishuller joins Josh and Joe to talk about his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Nobody (2021)

Hardcore Henry (2016)

Billy Jack (1971)

My Winnipeg (2007)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Top Gun (1986)

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Seven (1995)

Bill Hicks: Revelations (1993)

The Mission (1986)

The Killing Fields (1984)

Captivity (2007)

The Killing (1956)

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)

Once Upon A Time In America (1984)

You And I (2008)

Infested (2002)

No Country For Old Men (2007)

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Goodfellas (1990)

Goldfinger (1964)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Papillon (1973)

Papillon (2017)

Midnight Run (1988)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Oldboy (2003)

Parasite (2019)

Assassins (1995)

Ladder 49 (2004)

Waterworld (1995)

Heathers (1989)

Mad Max (1979)

A History Of Violence (2005)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Punishment Park (1971)

The War Game (1966)

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Uncut Gems (2019)

Culloden (1964)

Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Fail Safe (1964)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Let The Right One In (2008)

Patton (1970)

Hardcore (1979)

Mr. Nobody (2009)

District 9 (2009)

Paths of Glory (1957)

A Clockwork Orange...

Exclusive: Sam Morgan (American Woman) is joining the 11th and final season of Showtime’s hit dramedy Shameless in a recurring role.

Morgan will play one of the new yuppie owners of Born Free.

Starring William H. Macy, the final season of Shameless finds the Gallagher family and the South Side at a crossroads, with changes caused by the Covid pandemic, gentrification and aging to reconcile. As Frank (Macy) confronts his own mortality and family ties in his alcoholic and drug-induced twilight years, Lip (Jeremy Allen White) struggles with the prospect of becoming the family’s new patriarch. Newlyweds Ian (Cameron Monaghan) and Mickey (Noel Fisher) are figuring out the rules and responsibilities of being in a committed relationship, while Deb (Emma Kenney) embraces her individuality and single motherhood. Carl (Cutkosky) finds an unlikely new career in law enforcement and Kevin (Steve Howey) and V (Shanola Hampton) struggle to decide...

A version of this story about Diane Warren first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.

Over the last six years, Diane Warren has been nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar five times, the most fruitful stretch in a career that has included 11 nominations dating back to 1988. She has yet to win, but she’s in the race almost every year — and she always eagerly campaigns and isn’t afraid to admit that she really wants an Oscar.

“Of course I want to win,” she said with a laugh. “I hate it when people say, ‘Oh, I don’t really care.’ If I have something I believe in, I love the whole process. It’s fun.”

She’s certainly in the thick of the process this year, with two different songs that are serious contenders in the Oscar race. The most unusual one for her...

He’s written songs with everyone from Quincy Jones to John Barry – though his musical about premature ejaculation was a flop. ‘Everyone’s the same when they sit at the piano,’ he reveals

For a man who recently suffered from coronavirus and had a lengthy stay in hospital, Don Black sounds surprisingly hale and hearty. He can even find a positive about his brush with Covid-19. The NHS staff were fantastic, he says. Moreover, they found out who he was during his stay – he’d been booked in under his real name, Donald Blackstone – and, when he left the hospital, not only lined up to applaud him, but serenaded him with an impromptu version of Born Free, the Oscar-winning song that Black co-wrote in 1965. “Isn’t that wonderful?” he marvels.

Black’s book The Sanest Guy in the Room is full of anecdotes a bit like that. Somewhere between a...

Is a movie ever complete without music?

“F— no,” Justin Tranter (“Klaus”) declared at Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts: Music panel, moderated by this author (watch above), which also featured Diane Warren (“Breakthrough”), H. Scott Salinas (“The Banker”) and Alex Somers (“Honey Boy”). “Music is everywhere. You can’t even go to the grocery store without music, so I feel like there are amazing examples of films without music. … [But] it’s the universal language. It can enhance emotion, I think, better than almost anything. That’s why music’s everywhere.”

Added Warren: “I think Quincy [Jones] said something about that one time: Watch a movie with no music and see how that affects you. It’s so important; it’s like another character.”

Of course, there have been films sans music, like “Mother” (2017), which Somers dubbed “creatively absent of score,” and “No Country for Old Men” (2007), which featured very minimal music.

This favorite animal film takes a half-step sideways out of the cute animal subgenre: the delightful Mij is no super-otter, just an ordinary playful garden-variety otter, as an Otter oughta be. (cough) Champion mellow English couple Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers have put together a film guaranteed to lower your blood pressure. But see it first before deciding it’s for your kids, as reality is not sugarcoated in its uplifting, but certainly not sentimentalized, view of our place in a world that still has some animals left alive.

Ring of Bright Water

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Peter Jeffrey, Jameson Clark, Helena Gloag.

Cinematography: Wolfgang Suschitsky

Film Editor: Reginald Mills

Original Music: Frank Cordell

Written by Jack Couffer and Bill Travers from a book by Gavin Maxwell

Produced by Joseph Strick

Directed by Jack...

Captain Marvel TV Spot Born Free The first movie TV commercial for Captain Marvel (2019) has been released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The Captain Marvel TV spot is entitled ‘Born Free’ and features some new footage from the film. Captain Marvel‘s plot synopsis: “The film follows [Air Force pilot Carol Danvers [...]

Continue reading: Captain Marvel (2019) TV Spot: Brie Larson is ‘Born Free’ Before She is Remade by The Kree...

We’ve got a new promo spot to share with you today for Marvel Studios highly anticipated film Captain Marvel. The trailer is called “Born Free,” and it’s basically a re-edit of footage that we’ve already seen in previous trailers.

I’m pretty excited to see how this story plays out. I love what I’ve seen from this movie so far. The visuals have been pretty spectacular, and I especially love Captain Marvel’s costume design. I’ve heard a few things about the film that I won’t spoil for you, but fans can expect some fun and surprising twists and turns.

The film is set in 1995 and follows Carol Danvers, an Air Force pilot whose DNA is fused with that of an alien during an accident. The resulting alteration imbues her with the superpowers of strength, energy projection, and flight. The Skrulls will also play...

This article marks Part 12 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the winners.

The 1973 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“(You’re So) Nice to Be Around” from “Cinderella Liberty”

“Live and Let Die” from “Live and Let Die”

“Love,” from “Robin Hood”

“All That Love Went to Waste” from “A Touch of Class”

“The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”

Won and should’ve won: “The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”

The title song from “The Way We Were,” composed by the brilliant, Egot-winning Marvin Hamlisch, alongside Alan and Marilyn Bergman, is a dreamy, haunting, immensely moving piece, performed splendidly by the incomparable Barbra Streisand. The film’s leading lady strikes just the right notes here,...

This article marks Part 10 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the winners.

The 1965 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“The Ballad of Cat Ballou” from “Cat Ballou”

“The Sweetheart Tree” from “The Great Race”

“The Shadow of Your Smile” from “The Sandpiper”

“I Will Wait for You” from “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”

“What’s New, Pussycat” from “What’s New, Pussycat”

Won: “The Shadow of Your Smile” from “The Sandpiper”

Should’ve won: “The Ballad of Cat Ballou” from “Cat Ballou”

On February 15, 1965, at the mere age of 45, Nat King Cole, unimpeachably one of the all-time great vocalists and jazz pianists, died of lung cancer. Cole tunes were nominated on three occasions at the Oscars – in 1950 (for...

From the moment it first screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the story around “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.” is that its namesake — the iconoclastic English-Sri Lankan musician and general force of nature — is unhappy with the documentary that longtime friend Steve Loveridge has made about her. This critic was at that premiere, and remembers spending most of the supremely awkward Q&A that followed staring at the floor and praying for the sweet release of death. “He took all my cool out,” Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam said to the audience after bemoaning the film’s length. “It’s not the film that I would have made.”

Well, yeah. As even Arulpragasam seemed to understand, that’s kind of the whole idea. Once an aspiring documentarian herself, she knew — when she gave Loveridge a 700-hour cache of home video footage in 2011 — that he would use it to cobble together an honest, subjective, and occasionally unflattering portrait.

As a Beloit College undergrad, Matt Tolmach received an alarmed call from his grandfather, legendary Hollywood producer and agent Sam Jaffe, who once represented the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and also produced Born Free. "He said, 'Matthew, what's this crap I hear about you being a writer? Come on out to the coast, and I'll get you a job at the Morris office,' " recalls Tolmach, 52. And so Tolmach did, embarking on a Hollywood career in 1986 from the William Morris mailroom. He eventually rose to be co-president of Sony's Columbia Pictures and during his 13...

Jimmy Stewart holding the wrong number of fingers up for our exercise!We're so close to the big show. Voting ends Today. And then it's all over but the big night (and recapping and contemplating celebratory madness). For today's trivia item with the number 5, a random sampling of men... stepping away from the ladies for a minute. (gasp)

Five time male winners

John Barry (composer, Dances with Wolves, Out of Africa, Born Free, etc)

Johnny Green (composer on lots of musicals)

Fred Hynes (sound on lots of musicals)

Dennis Murren (visual fx: Terminator 2, Innerspace, The Abyss, etc)

Edward Selzer (animated short films: Speedy Gonzalez, Sylvester & Tweety shorts, etc)

Lyle Wheeler (art direction: The King and I, The Robe, The Diary of Anne Frank, etc)

John Williams (composer: Star Wars, Schindler's List, etc)

Francis Ford Coppola (writer/director/producer: The Godfather, etc)

Actoriffic-ness after the jump.

John Williams is nominated for his 50th Academy Award as a composer this year. He's won five so far, and rightly so: Williams' contributions to film contain some of 20th century's most recognizable themes. You'd be hard-pressed to find an individual who couldn't warble at least one of his scores, and it's fitting that he's been nominated for his continued work on Star Wars, a franchise that owes at least part of its popularity to Williams's immortal theme. With 50 nominations and five wins, you'd think Williams would be in the running for some Oscar records, wouldn't you? Well, no, actually.

Do you love movies about cute animals? The original pet-lion-in-Africa romp is actually a well balanced nature film about the separation between wild animals and those raised by humans. Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers winningly play the Adamsons, game wardens that dedicate themselves to the well-being of Elsa, the lioness they raise from infancy. Born Free Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 96 min. / Ship Date December 8, 2015 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Geoffrey Keen, Peter Lukoye, Omar Chambati Cinematography Kenneth Talbot Film Editor Don Decon Original Music John Barry Written by Lester Cole from the novel by Joy Adamson Produced by Sam Jaffe, Paul B. Radin Directed by James Hill

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Savant normally becomes sullen and anti-social around overly committed animal lovers, I suppose because I think the world gets a little out of balance when people seriously consider their domestic...

Voice cast of Raymond Briggs’ adaptation also includes Luke Treadaway and Virginia McKenna.

Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethyn are to voice the lead characters of Ethel & Ernest, a new hand-drawn animated feature based on Raymond Briggs’ classic graphic novel and tribute to his parents.

Production is underway on the film, set for theatrical release in 2016, and the cast also includes Luke Treadaway as Raymond, Olivier award winner for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and star of Fortitude; Virginia McKenna (Born Free, A Town Like Alice), June Brown (EastEnders), Pam Ferris (Matilda), Simon Day and Roger Allam.

The film will also showcase the voice of 11-year-old Harry Collett as young Raymond, who provides the voice of Buzzbee in Disney Junior’s animated series The Hive.

Ethel & Ernest marks the feature debut of Roger Mainwood, who worked as an animator on Briggs’ classic short The Snowman and was lead animator on the 2012 sequel, [link...

Delia Harrington Feb 24, 2019

The Captain Marvel movie will bring back some familiar faces to the McU. Here's everything you need to know!

Carol Corps, assemble! After far too long, Captain Marvel finally arrives in March 2019 as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first movie headlined solely by a woman. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Mississippi Grind) will direct the Captain Marvel movie from a script by Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Nicole Perlman (who famously helped develop Guardians of the Galaxy for the screen) and Meg LeFauve.

So where does this movie fit in the Marvel timeline? Easy, it's a prequel set in the 1990s, which makes it basically immune to the tricky ending of Avengers: Infinity War (even though she was teased by that post-credits scene). Steve Rogers is still on ice and Tony has yet to become Iron Man, giving Carol plenty of room to develop as a hero in her own right.

Exclusive: Bernard Hill, Virginia McKenna head MoliFilms comedy.

Principal photography is underway in the UK on comedy-caper Golden Years, produced by MoliFilms Entertainment executive Mark Foligno (Montana, The Rise).

Bernard Hill (Wolf Hall, Lord of the Rings) and Virginia McKenna (Sliding Doors, Born Free) star in the comedy heist film as a retired couple forced into a life of crime after they fall victim to the pensions crisis.

John Miller (Living in Hope) directs from a script he co-wrote with Nick Knowles and Jeremy Sheldon. It marks the feature debut of UK television presenter Knowles, best known for long-running BBC series Diy Sos.

Funding comes from MoliFilms.

Supporting cast includes Sue Johnston (Downtown Abbey), Alun Armstrong (Braveheart), Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Una Stubbs (Sherlock), Phil Davies (Vera Drake) and Brad Moore (The Rise).

Shoot will take place in Bristol and the Cotswolds during March and April.

Former Molinare executive Foligno, an executive...

It's always a good time to revisit our favorite children's movies, whether you're introducing your kids to them for the first time or enjoying a Disney classic yet again. If kids' movies like "Dumbo" and "The Rescuers" aren't already in your library, they're available right now to stream on Netflix, along with a lot of newer movies that will appeal to your kids (and to the kid in you).

(Availability subject to change.)

1. "Anastasia" (1997) G

This winning tale of a girl who might be the lost Romanov princess features the voice talents of Meg Ryan, Christopher Lloyd, John Cusack, and Hank Azaria.

2. "Antz" (1998) PG

Woody Allen voices a neurotic ant who falls in love with a princess (Sharon Stone) and must foil the plans of the power-mad General Mandible (Gene Hackman).

3. "Born Free" (1966) PG

A still-moving classic about the couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, then...

It can be such a beautiful happening when the natural forces of humanity and the wild kingdom can get together and establish a sense of harmony in motion pictures. Also, it can be a compelling yet regrettable conflict as well when man and beast decide to collide in the interest of big screen entertainment. Whatever the case may be certainly does not matter because the concept of beasts of all species (rather it be of the four-legged or two-legged variety) collectively clashing or cooperating sends a special message about triumph, tragedy and just plain tenderness.

In Beast of Burden: Top 10 Human-Animal Combinations in the Movies we will look at some of the best selections where man and animal co-exist whether it be in calmness or chaos. There is no doubt that one can come up with numerous top ten lists detailing their ideal man-animal themes in cinema. The struggle for...

To mark the release of Swallows and Amazons 40th Anniversary Restoration on 14th July, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on Blu-ray.

Arthur Ransome’s legendary children’s novel Swallows & Amazons was published in 1930 as the first part of what was to become a much-loved literary series. This beautifully filmed adaptation, written by renowned children’s playwright David Wood (whose latest adaptation The Tiger That Came To Tea opens in July at the Lyric Theatre), depicts the adventures of four children and their sailing boat Swallow.

Set in the Lake District in the1920’s, Swallows & Amazons follows the children (played by Simon West, Sophie Neville, Suzanna Hamilton and Stephen Grendon) whilst on summer holiday with their mother (Virginia McKenna, Sliding Doors, Born Free). During this trip the children are given permission to sail Swallow to nearby Wild Cat island to set up camp. However what they don’t...

Resurrecting the Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp must’ve sounded like one of the all-time Hollywood no-brainers when it was pitched to Disney in 2011. After all, the mysterious masked man used to be the all-American icon with the greatest chase-music (“The William Tell Overture”), the greatest sidekick (Tonto), and the greatest catchphrase (“Hi-yo, Silver, away!”). Plus, though Depp is playing a boldly reimagined Tonto opposite Armie Hammer’s Ranger, he was reuniting with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski, the creative triumvirate that made Disney billions with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. But getting The Lone Ranger into...

Gary Collins death at age 74 Collins -- best known in the United States as a television / Miss America Pageant host; elsewhere, as an actor in dozens of television series and a number of TV movies -- died earlier today, Saturday, October 13, of "natural causes" while in Biloxi, Mississippi. Collins was 74 years old. In recent years, he was involved in drunken-driving accidents and spent a few days in jail. (A little more information below.) Born in Venice, California, on April 30, 1938, Collins began his show business career while still serving in the U.S. Army, stationed in Europe. His film career didn't go very far: a mere ten movies over the course of four decades. The most notable among those was George Seaton's Airport (1970), an all-star blockbuster and Best Picture Oscar nominee in which Collins had a small role. Collins television work: countless television series and several movies On the other hand,...

Waterman Entertainment have picked up the film rights to Thomas Disch’s 1980 novel ‘The Brave Little Toaster’ with plans to turn it into a CGI/live-action hybrid feature, rather than just animation.

That would certainly bring back our toaster, vacuum cleaner, lamp and blanket in their own adventures. Also they will be adding in new technology to the diverse crew of appliances, including an iPhone.

Producer Steve Waterman credits include Casper, Stuart Little duology and Alvin and the Chipmunks trilogy.

I’m feeling pretty eeeeehhhhhhh about a remake, but we’ll see how it turns out.

In addition, Waterman Entertainment has also optioned the 1960 a Born Free to tell the story from the perspective of Elsa the Lioness.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: The Wrap

Click to continue reading Waterman to Remake The Brave Little Toaster as a CGI/Live Action...

If you're around my age, prepare to feel ambivalent about a remake of a property from your childhood!  Waterman Entertainment has acquired the rights to The Brave Little Toaster with plans to turn it into a (gulp) CGI/live-action hybrid feature.  The original 1987 cartoon follows a toaster, a lamp, an electric blanket, a radio, and a vacuum cleaner on a quest to find their original owner.  It was the most beautiful and terrifying piece of work that 5-year-old Brendan watched a hundred times.  I don't mind that producer Steve Waterman is dusting off the story for a new take, but his most recent credits are comprised of the Alvin and the Chipmunks trilogy, so my expectations are low. Hit the jump for the Brave Little Toaster trailer and details on another adaptation, Born Free. It has been a long time since I have seen The Brave Little Toaster, but watching...

In October of 2010, Sound on Sight asked me to do my first commemorative piece on the passing of filmmaker Arthur Penn. I suspect I was asked because I was the only one writing for the site old enough to have seen Penn’s films in theaters. Whatever the reason, it was an unexpectedly rewarding if expectedly bittersweet experience which led to a series of equally rewarding but bittersweet experiences writing on the passing of other filmdom notables.

I say rewarding because it gave me a nostalgic-flavored chance to revisit certain work and the people behind it; a revisiting which often brought back the nearly-forgotten youthful excitement that went with an eye-opening, a discovery, the thrill of the new. Writing them has also been bittersweet because each of these pieces is a formal acknowledgment that something precious is gone. A talent may be perhaps preserved forever on celluloid, but the filmography...

Elizabeth Taylor, Farley Granger, Jane Russell, Peter Falk, Sidney Lumet: TCM Remembers 2011 Pt. 1

Also: child actor John Howard Davies (David Lean's Oliver Twist), Charles Chaplin discovery Marilyn Nash (Monsieur Verdoux), director and Oscar ceremony producer Gilbert Cates (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, I Never Sang for My Father), veteran Japanese actress Hideko Takamine (House of Many Pleasures), Jeff Conaway of Grease and the television series Taxi, and Tura Satana of the cult classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.

More: Neva Patterson, who loses Cary Grant to Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember; Ingmar Bergman cinematographer Gunnar Fischer (Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries); Marlon Brando's The Wild One leading lady Mary Murphy; and two actresses featured in controversial, epoch-making films: Lena Nyman, the star of the Swedish drama I Am Curious (Yellow), labeled as pornography by prudish American authorities back in the late '60s,...

We continue our unabashed appreciation of some of the highlights of composer John Barry’s early movie career beyond the remit of the Bond franchise...

In the second part of our look at John Barry's extraordinary back catalogue of movie scores, we concentrate on a few more of the films from the mid- to late sixties. This was the beginning of a phase of phenomenal output, as well as experimentation, signposting his continuing diversity of technique and his burgeoning sense of style. Following on from the success of Zulu, his was a reputation that was quickly gaining momentum and garnering feverish accolades.

Stylish, contemporary and full of energy, Barry played as hard as he worked, and this musical period took place in a blur of fast living and nights at the Pickwick Club with the likes of Michael Caine and Terence Stamp, sampling the delights of the sixties at...

CEO Will Travers.Courtesy of Born Free USA.When Alex Shoumatoff began his expansive, global reporting for the story that would become “Agony and Ivory,” one of the people he looked to was Will Travers, C.E.O. of the Born Free Foundation. The organization was started by Travers’s parents, the actors Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. Born Free proved instrumental in coordinating Shoumatoff’s logistics, such as accommodations and transportation; it also helped arrange essential meetings, perhaps most notably with Julius Kipng’etich, director of the Kenyan Wildlife Services, who was photographed for V.F. by Guillaume Bonn surrounded by the confiscated tusks of slain elephants. Over the phone, Will Travers spoke to Vf Daily about his life in conservation.

Royal Albert Hall, London

The death of John Barry in January robbed the cinema world of one of its most outstanding soundtrack composers. This one-off memorial concert, co-produced by his widow Laurie and long-time Barry devotee David Arnold, featured his scores, meticulously recreated by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was a fittingly magnificent tribute.

Barry may have been long associated with the James Bond themes, but his five Oscars were awarded for non-Bond projects and this evening emphasised the breadth and variety of his lush, extravagant compositions. His string-laden theme to the iconic 1965 spy thriller The Ipcress File, preceded here by a tearful video tribute from its star, Michael Caine, remains a sublime exercise in muted, suspenseful menace.

Arguably Barry's greatest talent was his ability to skirt sentimentality while scoring even the most mawkish Hollywood movies, and the Royal Philharmonic's sumptuous arrangements captured the epic sweep of his brooding scores...

Cinema Retro's London photographer Mark Mawston reports on a very special evening in honor of a very special man.

By Mark Mawston

On one special day in June 2007 I found myself in dream land. Not only was John Barry playing the Meltdown festival that night but I was allowed access to the rehearsal of the show in the hope that I would gain some informal photographs of Barry. As it transpired, those formal shots did indeed happen - to an extent I simply could not have imagined, as towards the end of the rehearsal John's wife Laurie asked if I could return later that evening and take some intimate family portraits and some informal shots of John himself. This was a great honour, but that’s another story.

Cut to last Monday evening, another very special day in June. I found myself attending the Memorial concert of the great man himself.

Join Ricky Gervais, Florence Henderson, Julia Barr, Linda Dano and other Stars to Help Keep Wildlife in the Wild

Born Free USA’s Keep Wildlife in the Wild Week June 20 to 24 Encourages Action to Help Protect Wild Animals and the Planet

Washington D.C., June 9, 2011 - - Born Free USA’s third annual Keep Wildlife in the Wild Week June 20 to 24 was designed to encourage people to protect wild animals in their own backyards and around the globe. The official week-long “call to action” supported by celebrities including Ricky Gervais, includes advice, educational tools and online activities to engage adults and children to become more aware and protective of animals in the wild. Keep Wildlife in the Wild week focuses on creating a national movement to stop the exploitation of wildlife and protect our planet.

According to Adam Roberts, Executive Vice President of Born Free USA, “Lions, tigers, bears and...

British actress Joanna Lumley has modelled a gold-and-diamond necklace shaped like a tiger to boost awareness of an auction to raise funds for an animal charity.

The Absolutely Fabulous star has been snapped wearing the Shere Khan Necklace, which is to be put under the hammer for the Born Free Foundation, which hopes to raise a mammoth $480,000 (£300,000) to help save the wild tiger from extinction.

Lumley says, '"I feel very much that it's almost a royal piece. The necklace is so special it can be worn with anything, though I feel a strapless evening gown and long evening gloves would show it to perfection. The moment you put the necklace on, it comes alive!

"It feels great, like a badge of office, but it's incredibly comfortable and easy to wear. It reminds me of the fabulous pieces in the Duchess of Windsor's collection - panthers and leopards. I adore extreme looks and this is blingtastic!"

The piece, which consists of 182 diamonds and gemstones set in an 18ct gold tiger, will go up for sale at a gala at London's Savoy Hotel on 17 June to mark the 80th birthday of actress and Born Free founder Virginia McKenna, who starred in the famous 1966 film of the same name.

While growing up in the late Sixties to early Seventies, one of the favorite television shows in our house was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom with host Marlin Perkins. We loved watching wild animals in their natural habitat along with the challenges faced by Perkins and his field correspondents Jim Fowler and Peter Gros. Similar in nature was the classic film Born Free (1966), which told the story of female lion cub Elsa raised to maturity by a Kenyan game warden. Elsa is re-educated so that she can be released back into the wild. Both Wild Kingdom and Born Free left out the violence experienced in the wild, a pattern followed by IMAX documentary Born to Be Wild.

Directed by David Lickley and narrated by Morgan Freeman, Born to Be Wild focuses on two inspirational women, primatologist Birute Galdikas and elephant expert Daphne Sheldrick, who both work with orphaned animals to...

Queen guitarist Brian May was one of the stars to attend a special awards ceremony at the House of Lords in London on Friday to honor the “valuable and tireless work of small, independent rescue centers that help animals in the UK and overseas.”

Founded by Wetnose Animal Aid, the annual Wetnose Awards seek to “raise awareness of the fantastic job centres do in rescuing, caring for and rehoming abandoned animals, whilst highlighting the passionate, hardworking individuals ‘behind the scenes’ who selflessly devote their time to helping animals in need.”

Legendary guitarist Brian May presented British stage and screen actress Virginia McKenna a special lifetime achievement award for founding the Born Free Foundation in 1991. McKenna is best known for playing the role of Joy Adamson in the 1966 movie Born Free. The Born Free Foundation now works throughout the world to stop individual wild animals suffering, and also protects species in the wild.

DVD Playhouse—March 2011

By

Allen Gardner

127 Hours (20th Century Fox) Harrowing true story of Aron Ralston (James Franco, in another fine turn), an extreme outdoorsman who finds himself trapped in a remote Utah canyon, his arm pinned between two boulders, with no help nearby, no communication to the outside world, and dim prospects for survival, to say the least. Director Danny Boyle manages to prove again that he’s one of the finest filmmakers working today by making a subject that is seemingly uncinematic a true example of pure cinema. Inventive, breathtaking, funny, and horrifying, often all at once. Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara make a memorable, brief appearance as hikers who connect with Ralston during his journey. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Boyle, producer Christian Colson, co-writer Simon Beaufoy; Deleted scenes; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

Amarcord (Criterion) Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning, autobiographical classic might...